17 minute read
Sign language: more like spoken language than you’d expect By Désirée van den Berg & Isa Kraaijvanger
In Dutch we have got the NGT which stands for ‘Nederlandse Gebarentaal’. Renee Christ told us about this sign language. Her daughter, Nica (3), was born with the CHARGE syndrome, which is a combination of different medical conditions, including not being able to hear. That is why she and her husband Mollo began with learning sign language. In this interview Renee tells us some interesting facts about sign language.
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How did you learn sign language?
“It has been a very long process and we are still learning. We knew from very early on that Nica was deaf. Through courses, we started with sign language. In the beginning, it was easy, there was lots of material, but as soon as you want to expand your knowledge further, you have fewer options. Now, our learning equipment consists of predetermined lessons as well as customized modules which tie in with what Nica is learning at school.”
Is it easy to learn sign language?
“Well, a lot of signs are similar. Just like in spoken language, you sometimes have multiple meanings for the same word. Some signs are the same, but because you portray a different word with your mouth, you change its meaning. Details are very important, because tapping your finger slightly different, repeatedly or slowly, can change the meaning of the gesture.”
What was the most difficult to learn?
“In my opinion, grammar is most difficult in sign language. The sentence structure is different and therefore you have to think very carefully about how to gesture it. For example, ‘I’m going to work tomorrow’ becomes ‘Tomorrow I work’. This different sentence structure makes it easier for deaf people to follow.”
How do you portray sound in sign language?
“You imitate it. For example, when music or sound comes from a speaker, you point to the speaker and your ear and say and gesture that what you hear, in combination with your facial expressions, which are very important. You show ‘oh, something is happening over there’ or you mimic the sound by tapping rhythms on the table with your fingers. People who can’t hear do feel those vibrations, so there are different ways to make them aware of sound.”
How did you teach sign language to Nica?
“When we were told that Nica had bad hearing, we started a hearing aid process. A family counsellor gave us tips on how to communicate with Nica and indicated that sign language would always be beneficial. So, we got in touch with sign language. It starts with a few gestures and expands. If you look at how many gestures she already knows, it’s incredible.
How does Nica communicate with her family and friends?
“Well, she communicates in sign language, but also realizes that not everyone knows sign language. She realizes very quickly what someone has to offer. For example, Nica has a cousin who is a year younger and cannot sign language yet, but because they are both children, they will understand each other anyway. Nica is just trying to make things clear, also to her younger sister Estee of 10 months old, which is very nice to see. Fortunately, Estee’s hearing works very well, so naturally, we also encourage spoken language, but there is a combination: one moment we use sign language and the next moment spoken language.”
Were you interested in sign language before Nica was born? And when did you start learning sign language?
“Our interest came when Nica was born. Of course, you cannot know in advance whether someone can hear, so it was quite a blow for us when we were told that her hearing was impaired. Then, you think ‘okay, let’s put in a hearing aid and we are good to go,’ and we tried hearing implants, but we didn’t get any response either. Finally, when we were told that she wasn’t going to hear, we started to study sign language more intensely and requested new courses. We put a lot of time into learning as much sign language as possible because you want your child to be able to learn something from you and not the other way around.”
Would you recommend sign language to others who don’t have contacts to share it with?
“I would always recommend it, with the sidenote that you must learn it properly. The signs must be performed correctly. It is quite time-consuming and of course, the first gestures are very easy, because they are very logical. You don’t need a lot of effort to remember them, but once you start expanding your vocabulary, it is important that you continue to do everything correctly.”
In addition to the communication with Nica, do you experience other benefits from using sign language?
“I notice that when I am on the road with Mollo [her husband] and we are at a distance where we cannot talk easily, we sometimes gesture to each other. Or if we discuss something others don’t need to hear, we sometimes gesture. And with Nica’s teacher at school, who is completely deaf, I sign. This way, I can have a chat with her too.”
In the Dutch COVID press conferences in the last year, the sign language is very quick, can you follow that?
“Yes, but it’s a level you will not use at home. The use of words from Prime Minister Rutte is very different from the conversations you have at home. You need proper education to be able to use sign language like that on national television. Everyone gestures in their own way. That is why it is often the same person on television. As with speaking, everyone has their own way of speaking, with an accent for instance. The same goes for sign language. It’s easier to see the same person signing because it makes it easier to follow.”
Sign language has received a lot of public attention after the many press conferences on COVID-19. It appears that more people are interested in the subject. What do you think of this?
“Great! Sign language is more acknowledged and recognized. It becomes more normal for people and that acceptance is certainly nice. People no longer think it is a bit crazy.”
What would you like to tell others about sign language?
“Anyone who’s interested in sign language should try to get information on it and if you want to learn it, get started! It won’t be easy, but everything you learn is great! And perhaps you will meet someone who you can sign with. How cool is it for such a person to experience that, but also for you to see that you can do it? Just start with simple things, that is enough. I think all the effort you put into sign language is amazing!”
Advice from content creator César Majorana
César Majorana (1996) is a presenter who has presented for Dutch programs such as the online talk show CLUBHUB, LIT (NPO 3), 3LAB (NPO 3) and Vuilnis TV (VPRO). He is also a writer, and has written for the &C Magazine and the VPRO Gids. Powerful to Cesar’s life story is that he left his disadvantaged neighborhood for a successful career in media. Sandra had the opportunity to spend a day with César during his video recordings for Art Rocks, a music competition in museums. Read on to find out more about him, the art of making a story and useful tips that apply to a career in the media as well as life in general.
What was it like growing up in a disadvantaged neighborhood?
At home, there was always something happening on the street. I don’t know if that is typical for a disadvantaged neighborhood. It is also a place where there is quite a lot of nihilism. Where families are cynical at a young age, lots of kids who grow up in problem neighborhoods might come from families where there is more often conflict. The effect of this is that the children grow up much faster. I remember as young children we were too preoccupied with things that were too grown up. You have to become street smart at a very young age and that requires lots of maturity and responsibility. It was also a place that seemed very far from the world where I am now allowed to roam in. I have such a great job and I get to do such special things. When I lived there, I did not know that people were working behind the television. That was not an option. Sometimes I have an intern who is from Hilversum, and whose parents are working in the media and are very creatively stimulating. We can talk a lot about social mobility in the Netherlands, but a lot comes down to what your home situation looks like. And when you at home don’t get the idea that an art education, a photography education or a job like coach or something is possible [you won’t come to the idea to do that]. If your pa15
rents tell you to become a lawyer or a doctor out of fear that otherwise you will not be successful, then you have no real perspective on what you can become or be in your life.
It took a long time before I realized I wanted to be a journalist; it was my real passion actually. When I told that to friends, sometimes from abroad, they had very negative connotations about it. In Turkey or Morocco being a journalist isn’t a noble thing at all.
At the age of 17, you were chosen out of the 20.000 registrations to go to work as a presenter and program maker at BNN VARA. How did BNN VARA change your life?
I can’t say anything other than that BNN VARA has really changed my life. I learned so much about how you have to behave and your relationship with yourself and what you’re making in the media world. I got the chance to get started via BNN University. From day one it was: here is your desk, good luck. When you are in school there are always instructions from above that you can follow. For me quitting school and working at BNN Vara was different from this plan. Everyone had decided on what follow-up study they were going to do, and I told my dean “Listen, I am offered a job, I won’t follow a study.” I have had lots of conversations like this at the time. You just have to put your shoulders to the wheel to go your own way, you are on your own.
At the beginning that felt very harsh, like they gave me job and now I just had to figure it all out on my own to make the program, but that’s the way on which you can prove yourself and that’s everything you need. I am glad that I got that opportunity and took it with both hands, I think it would take me more effort to make it if it didn’t happen that way.
What did you study?
I have finished the VMBO T-L and the Havo. Nothing else after that, but now I am studying the Master in Moving Image at the Sandberg Institute. I never studied and always felt robbed of the experience of how that could be. At some point I decided to apply to the Master, and I could say it is really interesting. It is very special to be able to plunge into it in this way, and I couldn’t appreciate it like that if I started this after the Havo.
What do you want to say to the people who dream of becoming a media maker?
Dreaming of becoming a media maker is not enough. Dream more specifically, dream more tangible. Wonder: which stories have I not yet told and do I want to tell? And then dream of telling it in the best possible way. And when you are done dreaming, write it down in a plan, try to make it yourself
first in the simplest possible version and then try to find people who want to help you to make it.
During the video recording for Art Rocks, César interviewed musicians to talk about themselves and their songs. After that, he shared his tips about interviewing and life with me.
Tip #1: Some people who are interviewed find it hard to talk in front of the camera. Consciously talk more vaguely, about how an artwork sounds for example. By consciously putting it vaguely, people pick this up and make it clear on their own accord.
Tip #2: You’re constantly looking to find what makes something a unique story. It is best to do this by focusing on details. An example with food: when you ask people what’s inside a biscuit tin, they will say biscuits. When you ask them what their favorite cookie is, you will get a story.
Tip #3: Try to incorporate the person’s background. Ask if their parents make music, what kind of music they hear at home, look for a clue to help formulate your follow-up question.
Tip #4: Sometimes it is helpful to respond to what people are saying. Repeat a word they said, and they come naturally with a whole story.
Tip #5: It is also useful to think in advance which answers you want to hear. Think about yourself: which questions do you need? What should you pay attention to?
Tip #6: The painful questions: ask the questions you don’t want to ask at the end of the interview. Then you have already the information you want, and you finish with the painful questions. People have already an answer ready for the things they rather not talk about, so they will response with that.
Tip #7: Sometimes the questions you ask help to break the ice. Ask people to dream big. This way, you lift people up and they actually start dreaming big.
Tip #8: This applies specifically to television, but ask questions you won’t use. In this way, you loosen people up for the real interview. Just talk for ten minutes, and eventually a small piece will be shown on television.
Tip #9: There is collaboration behind everything, growing together. On your own you will encounter your own limits. Connect: I see what you are doing, shall we work together?
Tip #10: When you are creative in multiple areas, do everything until life forces you to choose. I was afraid when I got into making television, I wouldn’t be able to write, but now I am making television programs and I am writing for the VPRO gids.
Summer Cocktails
Rainbow Paradise
40 ml grenadine Ice cubes 160 ml pineapple juice 80 ml Malibu 40 ml water 20 ml Blue Curaçao
Spice up your summer with this Flow-themed cocktail! Pour the grenadine in a longdrink glass and fill your whole glass with ice. Mix the pineapple juice with the malibu and add it to the glass. Mix the water with the blue curaçao and add it carefully (with a teaspoon) to your glass. You will see that the yellow and blue mix will perfectly mix with a green layer. Serve with a lemon slice or an orange slice. Cheers!
Non-alcoholic Piña Colada
60 ml coconut cream 125 ml pineapple juice 1 teaspoon of coconut flakes Crushed ice Extra: maraschino cherries or a slice of pineapple on top
Did the sun give you enough of a headache to keep you off of the alcohol for a bit? Blend the pineapple juice with the coconut cream and crushed ice until smooth. Mix it with the coconut flakes and garnish with maraschino cherries or a slice of pineapple on top! Ready to serve!
The pandemic has made an impact on how we handle our attention.
“We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, year after year...”. Pink Floyd have always enchanted us with their meaningful and poetic lyrics, but this verse can somehow be literally interpreted now. Apparently, goldfish have the capacity to focus on a task or on a specific object for about 9 seconds. In a Microsoft study done in 2015, it was found that humans have a shorter attention span than their underwater friends. Even though the outcomes of this research are being debated all over the internet, are we lost souls that swim like fish around a digitalized world, forgetting our tasks?
During quarantine, most people have spent their time online trying to (re)connect with others, working, finding new hobbies and/or distracting themselves. Of course, many have it pretty tough right now, but not all understand the struggle of students. Watching a university lecture comes along with trying to pay attention to the professor, taking notes, and reading a live chat. All of this is done while also typing in some questions yourself (if there is any mental space left for that). But the problem does not necessarily lie in caring for these tasks, as students had been doing quite the same thing before the pandemic. The oddity that sparks an uncanny feeling is that now we are alone in our rooms, with no real eyes on us. Motivation was given by people being present. Because of the lack of human glances and missing a real acknowledgment of being “there”, we have an independence that stresses and distracts us.
A lot of time is spent online, multitasking. But how will this be translated in our future work as we are locked within the same spaces? Now it is too early to see clear effects, but we are information-overloaded and the pace of what is happening around us has increased. If pre-pandemic studies in the US found that people pick up their phones around 58 times a day, how many times do we do that now? There are many apps to check, numerous messages to respond to, and there is daily news to read.
One of the main examples that “matches’’ and might influence the brains of the youth is TikTok. The videos on the app are 15 to 60 seconds long and they all appear on a hyper-personalized For You page, designed in a way that one can
endlessly scroll on. Apps like this are based on the same principles that make gambling addictive. In an interview published on Forbes in January 2020, Dr. Julie Albright said that random reinforcement is used to make users spend more time on the app. This means that not knowing if one “wins” or “loses” gets him/ her to want to see more content. Furthermore, a crucial matter is how different these videos are and the emotions that they might induce. From people happily dancing, breath-taking sceneries, and pets, one could get to see videos that expose dangerous behaviors or that show people exposing their struggles. The app comes as a mirror of our current mental states - disrupted, unfocused, looking for dopamine - and it carries around the potential of changing the way video content will be perceived.
We are trying to stay focused for a long time, while children and teenagers are getting accustomed to seeing this type of TikTok-alike content that gets to the point very quickly. If a 16-year-old watches a movie from the 50s, the question “When will something happen?” will surely pop up within the first minutes. What was interesting some decades ago does not interest the modern generation anymore. However, we have to think critically if this is because of the online content consumed and its immediacy, or if there are other factors that play a role here. Being in a lockdown accelerated some feelings, while at the same time it slowed down the pace of taking action. I guess we will find out if we are fully functional when the world opens up again. Until then, have a great swim in that fishbowl!
